snow days, continued

We had planned to travel to several Christmas markets this week...that plan got a little derailed, as you might imagine. We "only" got about six inches of accumulation (in our village, anyway!) but the roads weren't cleared. If you have ever lived in Germany you will know how odd that is. The salt trucks are usually out in force at the first hint of snow. We still aren't sure what happened!

Jason and I have spent the past several days keeping four children entertained in our house. Yes, they played in the snow but it was cold outside! We couldn't just leave them out there...even though it was tempting at times. I'm hoping to get the pictures from our various activities up and on here today. So this is the first of several entries I'll make today.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season! We are wishing you all as much fun as we are having!

izzy the bruiser

Izzy is in that stage. The one where they constantly fall, scare you half to death, and look like you beat them on a regular basis. Why is it that babies have to learn to walk again?

The other day Izzy fell into a table in the living room. I was sitting right next to him, talking to him, and even looking at him but there was no way I could get to him. It was fast. The crying was instantaneous and horrible. I felt so bad for him! See how awful it looked? Poor Izzy!

We applied ice (well, a cold teether), doled out some Tylenol, and liberally applied hugs and kisses. He calmed down quickly but it hurt to look at him for the whole day. He actually had what looked like a goose egg on his eyelid. I didn't even know that was possible.

Once the swelling started to go down you could really see where he hit the table. The bruising is along the fold of his eyelid, so unless his eyes are a little closed you can't even see it. It's lined up almost perfectly with the edge of the bone around his eye. If he had hit a little lower, it might have been a little more serious. He smacked into that table really hard.

This last picture was taken three days after the accident. The bruising around the edge of his eye was in that lovely yellow-green stage. His eyelid was (and is, nine days later!) still purple but it's hard to get a picture of it because it is right in that crease.

I gotta say, he's a tough little guy. I have to admire his ability to take these hits and just keep getting up and going again. I hope he keeps that with him as he gets older.

introductions

Zander meet Pigpen...


...Pigpen, meet Zander!

snow days

Finally! We were hopeful that there would be a lot of snow this year and we're right in the middle of a good spell right now. The last couple of years have been very "green". I think the last real good year for snow was 2004/2005...we got oodles of snow that year! We're not exactly looking at "oodles" just yet, but we're getting a pretty steady snowfall all the same.

I'm really not sure how I managed to get this picture. I try to snap a couple of the kids just prior to anything that requires them all running around and screaming like maniacs. They are used to it and, for the most part, are very good sports about it...but this is SNOW. The FIRST SNOW. And, man...they just wanted to play. Regardless, I still got three out of four sets of eyes on me. I'll take it.

I honestly can't remember what Sam was doing here. He was obviously having a really great time, though. That is the most authentic smile I have captured on this kid's face in a very long time!

The boys had a snowball fight, of course! Here's Jake giving me what I have been calling his "I'm highly tolerant but you have exactly 12 seconds to snap that picture before I run off" face. Don't ask about the hat. He's going through some kind of lumberjack phase.

Zander spent his entire afternoon outside eating snow. He just picked it up by the handful and munched away. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised--that's the same thing he did last year too. This is one of the very few pictures we got of him doing anything else--and I think he's probably just on his way to the next buffet location.

We managed to get Izzy out into some snow once last year. He was dressed in his little snowsuit and sat in it for a few seconds (he wasn't sitting too well yet) but that was pretty much it. He was only two or three months old at the time so I'm guessing everyone understands. This year he had a blast. He walked around in it and squealed and picked it up and ate it and just had a really great time. I love this picture--you can tell he's freezing but you can also see how much fun he's having. He was so cute out there!

(Yes, that is a black eye. More on that in another post.)

We are loving the snowy weather! We're determined to appreciate it since we may not be in a place to see it next year. Well, Jason and I are. I don't think the boys need any reason to love the snow!

some links you may enjoy

While I upload pictures to Flickr and plan out the next two weeks of fun with the kiddos, I thought I would put up a list of links that I've recently run across. Well, most of them recently. Please read the comments before clicking on the links as some readers may not like all the links provided!

SnowDays
This is a great site that my grandma e-mailed me a few years ago. You get to make your own snowflake and set it out into the world with a holiday greeting of your choice. It's a lot of fun and very kid-friendly. Try it out!

1000 Awesome Things
I love this site. The blog author is setting out to write 1000 posts about (you guessed it) 1000 awesome things.

FOUND Magazine
Some of the entries are funny. Some are just, well, weird. Probably not a site that everyone will like but I find it amusing.

KnittaPlease
Facebook was kind enough to let me know that one of my cousins is a fan of this site. I clicked over to see what it is (because I can be vaguely stalkerish at times, I guess) and I love the idea! Knitted graffiti! Awesome!

passiveaggressivenotes.com
This is similar to the FOUND Magazine except that the entries are mostly sent in by the recipient of the notes. The notes range from neighbors complaining about "night-time noise" (ahem) to pointless notes left on pinball machines in an employee break room. There are some funny ones in there.

dontevenreply.com
This one might offend, so if you don't like cussing or humor that is very non-PC you should just skip this one. I think it is a riot. The blog author responds to classified ads he (I'm assuming) finds with absolutely outrageous results. Some of the posts are better than others; I highly recommend reading the best of list that is on the site. Too funny!

what farts a snowflake?

One of the more interesting parts of parenting a gazillion children (okay, four...same thing in the opinion of some) is juggling all their various needs and wants. In our house, the kids seem to take turns doing extracurricular activities. It's not planned that way; that's just how it works out. Right now it's Sam's turn. He's in band and yearbook this year, both of which have after-school commitments during the week. Therefore, the other three kids and I have spent a lot of time sitting in the van waiting for Sam over the past few weeks.

While this is not such a big deal for Zander and Izzy (they'll take their snacks in the van just as happily as anywhere else), Jake gets rather bored. I don't blame him; I get a little bored myself. So I've started taking little things for the two of us to do. In addition to giving us both something to do, we get in a little "quality one-on-one" time as well. This past week it was paper with some tic-tac-toe grids on it. We played several games, got righteously beat by the cat, and then headed home when Sam came out.

Of course, then there is the traffic issue. Getting off the base in the "after work" time frame is an absolute pain. Even though we live less than two miles from the front gate, it can take upwards of 30 minutes to get home. The traffic is that bad. Jake, being the enterprising young man that he is, used one of our rides home this week to draw up a little cartoon on the back of our tic-tac-toe paper. I, being his mother, think it is hysterical and want to share.

I present you with: Snow-vamp!

There was a long conversation about snow-vamp on the drive. Snow-vamp only attacks other snowmen, never people. He drinks water from them which makes them smaller. You have to try to kill him with snowballs. The "Snow Sheriff" is trying to catch him but was grossed out by the "snow fart" (a snowflake...that looks a lot like a baby snowman) and couldn't. Snow-vamps obviously would not be red (contrary to what you might think, mom, geez!) because snowmen don't have red blood.

If you are familiar with this family on a personal basis you know that Jake is pretty quiet. Having him giggle and story-tell his way through a 30-minute car trip is a serious triumph. He's so quiet that we sometimes worry that he gets "drowned out" by his more, shall we say, boisterous siblings. This little activity really got him going and I was so happy to see it. It's nice to see him bubbly and creative.

I'm almost starting to look forward to sitting in the van!

a list because i'm lazy

1. School is kicking my butt. It's all I can do to get the basic household necessities done...oh wait. That's right...I'm NOT! I am so thankful that Jason does the laundry. If he didn't we would be in trouble.

2. I'm kicking school's butt. So far. I see the potential for some problems in the second half of the term but as of right now I'm doing really well.

3. But I'm so burnt out that I had to request ideas for my biology paper on Facebook. Is that bad? Oh well. I only got one suggestion...but it was an awesome suggestion and I took it.

4. Did you know it's almost Christmas? Ack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Need way more time than I have.

5. Izzy is walking pretty well now. We're working on the "W-sit" thing still. He really isn't talking still but he's communicating a little. He repeats us a ton but he's not independently using any words yet. He'll use the sign for "more" and he points A LOT now. So we're getting there.

6. Jason put in for an assignment to San Antonio. Although he's a GREAT fit for the job there is a possible timing issue (they want someone a little sooner than what we are due to leave here) so we'll see if it works out or not. I'm trying not to get my hopes up but I have been researching schools. The University of Texas San Antonio has a Geography program. I've found a pretty kick-butt pre-school for Zander too.

7. Um...I guess I don't actually have a "7". Hope everyone else out there is doing well.